Category Archive

Microsoft published the next 1703 feature update (aka Creator Update), as Current Branch Update on 11th April 2017. Four months after the Current Branch for Business will be published (planned for August 2017) and you may need to deploy it to your Windows 10 computer to stay supported or to benefits from the new features. Before deploying a new Windows 10 feature upgrade, you need to have a good plan. Test it in a lab environment, deploy it to a limited group and test all your business applications before broad deployment. Do not treat a feature upgrade as normal monthly software … Read More

With the recent problems caused by monthly Windows Update, knowing how to massively uninstall Windows Update with SCCM is a must! This action is not available by default in SCCM. There are 2 ways to uninstall a Windows Update. Both solutions require the command line utility WUSA.exe, that as been around since Windows Vista/Windows Server 2008 era. In this post, we will detail both solutions to uninstall a Windows Update with SCCM. If you are looking for how to manage Windows update with SCCM, see our SCCM Software Update Management Guide for complete instructions. Prerequisites SCCM any version Windows 7 … Read More

Usually, when it comes to driver management, for computer already deployed, we say ‘If it ain’t broken don’t fix it’. Once in a while, a driver or firmware could require an update because of a bug reported by multiple users but that would usually be an exception. Microsoft Surface devices have proven over and over that this statement doesn’t apply to them. Microsoft Surface, since the beginning of the brand, tend to work better with latest firmware version. Microsoft often releases new firmware revision along major Windows 10 releases. For home users, the update will be applied with the standard … Read More

One of SCCM Current Branch 1702 new feature is to support Express installation files for Windows 10 Cumulative Updates. This new features will enable a Windows 10 client to download only differential files from the previous month Cumulative Update. This should limit the size of Windows 10 Cumulative Updates as they tend to get bigger from months to months. In this post, we will cover how to configure SCCM and Windows 10 in order to benefit from express installation files. Prerequisites for SCCM Express Installation Files SCCM Current Branch 1702 or higher Windows 10 Anniversary Update 1607 with April 2017 Cumulative Update which … Read More

System Center Endpoint Protection and Windows Defender both have a history of changes since they came out years ago. When Windows 10 came out more changes were made to Endpoint Protection and Windows Defender as we covered in a previous post. The latest Windows 10 Creators Update (1703), also bring its share of changes for Windows Defender, which then impact Endpoint Protection on the end-user side. If you are new to System Center Endpoint Protection, see our complete guide which covers it all. In this post, we will look at what changed for Endpoint Protection and Windows Defender in the Windows … Read More

With the release of Windows 10 1607, some customization solution were modified. One of them is the ability to modify the Taskbar configuration. In a previous post, we provided many customization scripts and how-to that were made for Windows 10 version 1511. Modifying the Taskbar was one of those customization but it was more of a workaround than a planned how-to. With Windows 10 1607, the Taskbar can be modified similarly to the Start Menu. In this post, we will detail how to modify the Windows 10 Taskbar configuration using a SCCM Task sequence. This could also be done as part of a Group … Read More

We came across a strange issue today on Windows 10 devices that we haven’t seen since the Windows Vista days. Users has started to get prompts for User Account Control(UAC) when connecting to some printers. The Point and Print feature is responible for this as it easily allow standard users to install printer drivers from trusted print server. The problem appeared right after applying last July monthly updates. (MS16-087) Windows 10 Point Print UAC Prompt Cause Microsoft as tightened the requirement for printer drivers on print servers. If you : Are using a print server Allow standard user to install printer drivers using the … Read More

Before starting a Windows 10 migration project, it’s always a good idea to be informed. There was so much information about Windows 10 in the past year : the OS itself has a couple of new features that you need to first understand. Your infrastructure needs various updates before you can start managing Windows 10 devices. The Windows 10 servicing options are also a huge chunk to understand. This can be overwhelming at first so we decided to compile a list of documentation that we found helpful during our multiple deployment projects. Come back often as this list will continue … Read More

The KMS server was first introduced with Windows Vista as an easy activation service for IT pros. Since then, each new release of Windows and Office provided a necessary update to KMS server, in order to keep offering activation keys to Windows and Office clients. The release of Windows 10 KMS activation and Office 2016 activation is no different then previous versions. In this post, we will covert how to use an already configured KMS server for activation of Windows 10 and Office 2016. Prerequisites for Windows 10 KMS Your existing KMS server will most probably be good to manage licenses … Read More

With the introduction of new Windows 10 service branches, you will need to upgrade your Windows 10 devices at a much faster pace. Hopefully, SCCM Current Branch (1511 and higher) has built-in features to help you fulfill this task. You can choose between Upgrade Task Sequence or the new Windows Servicing feature. This post will describe how to use SCCM Windows 10 servicing plans to upgrade Windows 10 devices. If you are running SCCM 1511 we recommend using the Upgrade Task Sequence over servicing plans. SCCM 1511 has an issue that makes all Windows 10 languages and editions to be downloaded … Read More